Shoe-sole



H. C, EGERON.

` sHoE SOLE. APPLICAUGN FILED FEB. 23| 1918.

-the following `is a specification, nection with the accompanyingdrawing, l

' sole construction of boots and shoes. f'nary rubber composition solesare objecl:jects are stepped upon so cultjies a sole stiffening elementy' fabric, such `if desired, a more or less thick fibrous centerafirmaron; or f rAssAic; NEWVJERSY.

' SHOE-Sonn To all 'whom 'it-may concern.' i

Be it knownV that 1.,' HENRY C. EGERTON, a citizen of the United States,and resident of Passaic, county of Passaic, State of New Jersey, have'made a certain new InventionRelating to Shoe-Soles, of which taken inconwhich forms part of the same.

This invention relates especially tr) the rditionable for general usebecause they are too soft and do not sufficiently resistpuncture,`bending or penetration when hard obthat they are often ,'quiteobjectionable in walking over rough To obviate these diilior unevenground.

can be pro'- vided preferably layers of fabric of which one or moreouter layers' may with advantage -be of woven ascanvas or the like,inclosing,

composed. of fabric, paper or cotton or other the wholev beingpermac'emented together with suitable cestiffness, waterproof and otheras bakelite or similar phenol material. This eem'enting material can bereadily and thoroughly incorporated with the fabric or fibrous materialand then the whole cured or hardenedby, the usual heat treatment so astri-'form the entire stiffening or reinforcing sheet or element into asingle strong and' quite rigid unit which can sufficiently reinforcesuch rubber or other soft shoe soles to i' makel'the entire shoe solestructure about as "also rubber heel,

stiff and resistantas an ordinary leather sole. If desired, the surfaceof the fabric on .thebottorn of this stilfening element may be suitablycoated or provided with a rubber coating and a rubber composition soleand if desired, vmay be united f therewith by vulcanizing processes `atthe fsaine"'time that1 the phenolic condensation bementingmaterial iscured or hardened to unite the parts of Theshoe upper may of course beattached to 'the rubber sole the stiffening sole element.

and stiffening element there- .for in any usual or suitable way, whetheror not these two sole elements Ahave been pre- Speccation of LettersPatent.

appimatifm inea February 2a, isis.

and useful comprisingv a plurality of,v

4for instance, by

serial No, 218,679.

viously vulcanized or otherwise' united together, and in some casesespecially where thel upper is more or less formed of canvasor the likeit may be directly moldedv` and cemented by such phenolic condensationcelateiitedSept. 14,

inenting material into the solestructureat the same time the parts areunited by heat and the rubber sole vulcanized or cured in. y

this connection.

In the accompanying drawing showing l,in

a somewhat diagrammatic way illustrative embodiments of this invention,li

Figure l is a longitudinal section through ,1

a shoe sole and adjacent parts. A Big. 2 1s anfenlarged.transverse`section I thereof.

` Fig .3 is a transverse section through. a

solefstiffening sheet or element. .i

Fig. 4 is a similar View throughone of thelmodified sole stiffeners; andi Fig. 5 slipws still another form of sole stiffener or reinforcingsheet.- As indicated in a rather way. in Figs. l. andfZ, the solestiffening element or sheet may comprise a greater or less number oflayers of any suitable `fabric,the two outer layers l. and 2 beingpreferably of woven fabric such as canvas, for instancefA although, ofcourse, finer and thinner fabric may be used in some cases. A fibrouscenter 3 may be interposed between thev two outer fabric layers and thiscenter may have varying thickness throughout the differentparts of thesole stiffening element, many fibrous materials being suitable for thisurpose, such, for example, as lian, jute di? cotton liber in the form,for instance, of cottonbatting, iiiecotton waste, paper or paper ulp, ormixtures thereof. It is desirable to ave greater strength and stiffnessat the arch portion of the sole and to secure this additionallayers ofstrengthening-fabric 4 may be incorporated at this point. in the form ofwoven fabric or paper which may advantageously be used to some extent atleast at this arch portion of the solev where less flexibility isdesired. In order to thoroughly incorporate these different materialsand form-` a stiff and strong unitary sole reinforcing element they maybe advantageously cemented together by the use of such phenoliccondensation material which may be incorporated therewith in' anysuitable way, as more or less impregnating the outer fabric layers andcenter or other diagrammatic j material therewith, or in some cases onlyparts of these materials may be originally impregnated and the more orless liquid or plastic cementing materialforced into or through theothers by high pressure when the parts are shaped andmolded preparatoryto the heat curing or uniting of the parts. It is often desirable tohave the stiffening element thinner and softer at the edges, such as 5,so that, if desired, these parts may be readily pierced by the stitchingor other uniting means employed for joining the other shoe elementsthereto, and for this purpose theouter edges of the sole stiffeningsheet or element may advantageously be forced more powerfully togetheror may have less interposed center material between them, so that thisthinner edge portion has also a less proportion of the phenoliccondensation cementing material :remaining therein which makes itconsiderably softer and more flexible so as to be more easily penetratedfor this purpose. This curing of the phenolic condensation impregnatingmaterial may with advantage be what is known inthis connection as themoderate curing thereof which may be secured by heating the impregnatedmaterial under pressure for an hour or so at a temperature of about' 300Fahrenheit which produces the desiredl stiffness and strength when theresulting cured sole stiffening element contains l() to 50 per cent. ofthe phenolic condensation material.

.lt is in many cases advantageous to vulcanize the rubber compositionsole directly to a sole stiff'ening fabric or sheet impregnated with orcarrying cured phenolic condensation material; and for this purpose oneof the outer fabric layers of the stiffening element may be frictionedor coated with rubber composition preferably before it has the phenoliccondensation cementing material applied to its other side orincorporatedv themwith. This lower frictioned or rubber coated surfaceof the fabric layer 2, for insta1ice,Lma-y then be, united or forciblybrought into contact with the rubber composition sole (S formed of theusual rubber solo coml'iosition containing, if desired, fibrous materialand other filling andfwear promoting inert substances, and then theentire sole. (3, which may, if desired, include the rubber heel 7, maybe united to the solo stiff'eni-ng element or sheet when the sole isvulcanized by the usual ,heat treatment therefor which can be carried onat such temperatures and for such times as to properly cure or hardenthe phenolic condensation cementing material for the sole stiffeningelement, provided, of course, that. the rubber composition is properlyselected for this purpose. In this way an integrally united rubber soleand attached stiffening and lining' element is produced, such as shownin Figs. 1 and 2, and this may be stitched or otherwise united to theshoe or boot upper S in -any suitable way.

It is not, however,necessary in all cases to unite these sole elements,and the stiffening and reinforcing sole element or sheet may be built upand cured or permanently united as above descriled so as to form theseparate still'euing `or reinforcing sheet shown in section in Fig. 3,which may, of course. extend througlu'iut the entire sole or partsthereof. This preferably has thinner and softer edge portions 5 whichfor commercial purposes may advantageously be eX- tended so as to leavean edge port-ion a quarter of an inch or so wide, which .maybe trimmedoff after it has been stitched or otherwise united to the other parts ofthe shoe and in this way fewer sizes of these stifl'eniug elements canfill the range of commercial requirements. Fig. -l shows still anotherillustrative embodiment Iof the invention in which a heavy canvas orother woven fabric 11 is used on one side of the stiff'ening elem-nt andother suitabh.-l fibrous material l2, such, for instance,ias a sheetofcotton batting or strong fibrous paper, pafper pulp or mixtures thereofin some cases is cemented thereto by the use of such phenoliccondensation cementing material which gives the whole the desiredstiffness, strength and waterproof properties 'which are relativelyunaffected by the usual heat changes to which footwear is properlysubjected. lf desired, the woven fabric may extend out to form a thinneror single ply edge 13 which may also in some cases contain relativelysmaller proportions of the eernentng material so as to be softer andmore flexible. Fig. shows'still another illustrative form of stiffeningelement which 'may be formed of the `desired number of plies of canvasor other woven or lpaper fabric. two plies of heavy cotton duck 1-1, 15giving good results for general purposes when something equivalent toeight ounceI army duck is jused for these two layers. rl`he v may,be'thoroughly and strongly united by first impregnatingthem withphenolic condensation cementing material of this character and thencuring or uniting them yby heat after the)v have been forced directlytogether so as to preferably give as in the other cases` what is knownas the intermediate curing or hardening-of such phenolic lcomlensationvcen'ien'ting material, as is known as bakelitevarnish. Good results canusually be secured by curing such material under pressure attemperatures of y l about 3000 or so Fahrenheit for an hour or so andwhen two such layers of' duck are cured in this way they can bethoroughlv united into a quite hard strong sheet. about Y,kth of an inchthick which contains some fifty per cent..by weight of the cured phesoyring element. a sixteenth of an inch thick can p `be appreciated byconsidering that a relatively narrow strip can be bent into a circlevoftwo or three inches diameter without cracking or serious injury, andalsotliat the bending modulus of rupture corresponds to 15000to` 18000pounds or so per square inch.

ment isnonly used in material and woven fabric carrying phenolic AinFig. 5,'may

vFor most purposes where the stiening eleconnection. with the front partof the shoe soleand` does not ex- Ytendunderneath the entire heel asixtcent inch sheet of this character has proved to give excellentresultsy under regular service conditions. Of course, it is notnecessary that these yhomogeneous or other stifening elements shallextendthroughout the entire width or area of the sole, and for somepurposes, the stiffening element, such as shown be cut somewhat narrowerthan the shoe sole and may be sewn into the sole structure so as to beentirely concealed by the overlapping edges of the rubber or other soleand upper elements. While, of course, these sole stiffening orreinforcing elements'are especially desirable for use with rubber orother soft shoe sole they areV naturally not confined thereto and maywith advantage be used in connection with .regular leather shoe solesand are1 `iuite desirablein reinforcing thin or soft leather soles,since they give the .necessary stiffness and strength with relativelylittle weight and'cost as compared to leather.

This invention has `been described in connection with la number ofillustrative embodiments, forms,4 proportions, elements, parts, shapes,materials, compositions, methods of preparatiomand use, to the detailsof which disclosure lthe invention is not of course to be limited, sincewhat is claimed as new and what 'is desired to be secured by LettersPatent isset forth in the appended claims: ,Y

1. The shoe sole comprising a plurality of layers of woven fabric andadditional inner strengthening material including paper adjacent thearch portion of' the sole united thereto 'by cured-phenolic condensationcementing material to form an integral sole stiffening member, one sideof said outer fabric layers being provided with a rubber coating and arubber composition sole vulcanized thereto. A 2. The Ishoe solecomprising a 'layer of woven fabric and additional inner strengtheningmaterial including paper united thereto by cured phenolic condensationcementing material and a rubber composition sole.

3. The shoe sole comprisingpaper fiber cdndensation material and formingan integral sole stiiening element, and ya rubber composition soleadhesively united thereto.

4. The shoe sole comprising paper fabric material carrying phenoliccondensation material and acomposition sole united thereto.

5. The shoe sole element comprising a plurality of layers of paperfibermaterial carrying and united by cured phenolic condensationceinenting material rendering water resistant exposed portions ofsuch'fiber material and a rubber compositionsole united said partscarrying water 6. The shoe sole ,element comprising paper fiber materialcarrying cured phenolic condensation material lrender-ing waterresistant exposed portions of such 'fiber mate- ,Y

rial, and `a composition sole element united thereto. y 1 I 7 The shoesolestifl'ening element com.- prising outer layers of woven fabriccontaining large proportions of cured incorporated phenolic condensationcementing material and an interposed center comprising unspun fibrousmaterial to space apart the outer layers and strengthen the element, andbeing united by cured phenolic condensation cementing material to forman integral substantially waterproof element.

8.' The shoe sole stiffening element comprising an outer layer of wovenfabric containing cured incorporated phenolic condensation ceinentingmaterial and anv interposed center comprising unspun-fibrous material tostrengthen the element, said parts carrying cured phenolic condensationcementi-ng material to form a substantially waterproof element. I

9. The shoe stifening element comprising an outer layer of fabriccontaining cured incorporated phenolic condensation cementing materialand an interposed center comprising paper ber material to strengthen theelement, said parts carrying cured phenolic condensation cementingmaterial to form a substantially waterproof element.

10. The shaped up shoe stiffen'ing element comprising layers of unspunpap'er fiber ma'- terial containing large proportions of curedincorporated phenolic condensation cementing material strengthening anduniting said fibrous materialto form an integral substantiallywaterproof element.

11. The shaped up shoe stifl'fening element comprising layers of paperphenolic condensationl cementing material strengthening and uniting saidfibrous material to,` form roof element.

12. he shoe stiil'ening element comprising layers of paper fibermaterial containing cured incorporated phenolic condensation cementingmaterial strengthening and unit.

ing said fibrousmaterial to form a substantially waterproof element.

1B. The shoe stiffening reinforcing elep fiber material containing largeproportions of cured incOrl porated a substantiallyI ment. comprising`fabric and additional pa- -per fibrous material, said materials beingunited by incorporated cured phenolic condensation celnenting materialto form an 1ntegral shoe stili'ening element.

phenolic condensation cementing material 1 stilening and strengtheningthe element and rendering such Waterproof. y

16. The shoe stiffening element comprising paper liber material unitedand impreg nated by cured phenolic cementing material to form anintegral Water resistant element.

outer fabrics substantially 17. The shoe sltiflen'ing element comprs-ling papel' ber material carrying phenolic -1 cementing material. p p y lHENRY C. EGERTONi Witnesses: l

HARRY L. DUNCAN,y JEssIE B. KAY.

